hydrogen

An EU-funded flagship project, the H2FUTURE project consortium, has officially given the go-ahead for construction of the world’s largest pilot plant for the production of “green” hydrogen at the Voestalpine site in Linz, Austria.

With a capacity of 6 megawatts, this is the most effective and advanced plant of its type. It is scheduled to be fully operational by spring 2019.

The partners, consisting of Voestalpine, Siemens, Verbund, and Austrian Power Grid, together with the research partners K1-MET and ECN, will use this facility to research into future breakthrough technologies which are needed for a CO2-reduced energy future and the decarbonization of steel production to meet global climate goals over the long-term.

Sometimes, you have to go small to win big. That is the approach a multilab, interdisciplinary team took in using nanoparticles and a novel nanoconfinement system to develop a method to change hydrogen storage properties.

Honda and General Motors will jointly produce pollution-free hydrogen fuel cell power systems in the United States from around 2020, despite President Donald Trump’s promises to dismantle US environmental regulations intended to spur green car demand.

At a briefing in Detroit, GM executive Mark Reuss said the fuel cells could be used in autonomous vehicles, as well by ride-sharing companies, such as GM affiliate Lyft. He also said fuel cells could have aerospace and military applications.

The material – atomic metallic hydrogen – was created by Thomas D. Cabot Professor of the Natural Sciences Isaac Silvera and post-doctoral fellow Ranga Dias. In addition to helping scientists answer fundamental questions about the nature of matter, the material is theorized to have a wide range of applications, including as a room-temperature superconductor. The creation of the rare material is described in a January 26 paper published in Science.